Feral-cat complaints could spark changes to city rules

City will consider making it easier to fine those who feed wild felines

Alicia Bligen says she can't have a cookout, put lawn furniture outside or have grass in her yard.

That's because feral cats have inundated her property and use it as a litter box, she told York City Council during its committee meeting Wednesday night.

City officials seemed receptive, and will consider proposed changes to animal ordinances.

Bligen, who lives in the 500 block of East Philadelphia Street, explained that a woman who lives outside of the city has been dropping off food and water daily in her neighborhood for the feral cats. This has been happening for more than seven years, and it became worse after an abandoned building burned in December.

The woman has been asked to stop feeding them, but she has used the excuse that she is doing it to trap the cats, Bligen said. Bligen said she has been watching the woman, and the woman has not been trapping them.

Bligen said she has complained to officials over the years, but in order to do something about it, there has to be an ordinance in place.

City council is considering changes to its keeping-of-animals ordinance.

Under the proposed changes, "keep" would now mean to feed, house, care for or otherwise assume responsibility for the animal, regardless of ownership. It would be unlawful for any person to keep a wild animal, which would include any feral animal or any animal not capable of being kept as a household pet, the proposals state.

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It would be lawful for a person to keep one or more feral domestic cats if the person has trapped, neutered/spayed and released the cats back into the wild, the proposal states. The person would have to show proof of the neutering or spaying to the city, its enforcement, or its police officers.

The fine would be $100 to $1,000, the ordinance states.

The changes will be introduced on the April 1 agenda, but the council will vote on it April 15, council president Carol Hill-Evans said.

Councilman Henry Nixon said he empathizes with Bligen because one of his neighbors feeds feral cats in the neighborhood. Nixon said he bought a humane trap and caught six or eight last summer.

"It's never ending. It's never ending," Nixon said. "People that don't live with this don't have any idea what it's like."

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